How They Met

Back in 2020, Derin, a product designer, joined a community of other young designers where they shared their designs and revelled in the shared interest for their budding careers.

One day,  a motion designer named Godwin shared his work. Derin thought the design was brilliant and sent him a private message expressing her admiration for his work. This wasn’t out of character for Derin, who had a knack for being effusive in her praise for designs that impressed her. They had small talk, and that was it. 

First Date

It took around a year for the would-be lovebirds to reconnect, which was enough time for either one of them to have gotten married to someone else, I’d joked during the interview session I had with them via Google Meet. 

“It was on a Sunday,” Derin explained. “I closed from church, and I had this thing where I didn’t like going home alone after service because it was boring for me. So I texted him and asked if he wanted to hang out.”

Why him, though? Derin had no specific reason. “I don’t know. It was very random”, she said, as if destiny had set her on a trajectory she wasn’t yet aware of. 

At Godwin’s suggestion, they hung out at Pondicheri, an Indian restaurant at Ilupeju, where they had the most mainstream Indian meals one could ask for in an Indian restaurant: Chicken Biryani, tandoori rice with some sauce. This was in October 2021.

“She covered the cost”, Godwin said, “and I decided that I had to reciprocate the gesture.” 

Second Date

Two months later, he had his chance to return the gesture when they went to Zen Garden somewhere in Ikeja. This time Derin picked the place, an Asian restaurant she was familiar with as she used to visit with her family while growing up. 

“She spent an hour taking pictures of the food”, Godwin recalled. Derin contended with this recollection, stating that her food photography habit started much later. 

At Zen Garden, she had fried rice and cashew in chicken sauce, while he had special fried rice and shredded beef with green pepper sauce. While on the date, she would dabble with his sauce, a very girlfriend-ish behaviour. The jury is out on whether or not he had the premonition of a relationship to come based on these antics. 

But after the second date, it was clear to Derin that she wanted to see him again, and in January 2022, she invited him out along with the rest of her friends to Traffic Restaurant and Bar, Ikoyi.

Relationship

“At the beginning of every year, I have this gathering with my friends where we hang out to celebrate the beginning of the new year, so I invited him there”.

After the hangout, Derin and Godwin separated themselves from the rest of the group and went to the movies together. At the end of that evening, Derin walked out of the cinema, realising that she was returning home with the warm fuzzy feeling of being newly in love. Two months later, in March 2022, she and Godwin were officially a couple.

For Godwin, he could point to no specific moment of realisation. “For me, I guess it was more subtle. I can’t point to a specific time I fell in love. It just grew steadily on me.”

Their relationship, one month shy of its second anniversary, has primarily revolved around a mutual love for food.

At the beginning of their relationship, they went on dates every weekend, and even though prevailing economic conditions have forced the couple to space their restaurant rendezvous, it’s not a tradition that is coming to an end anytime soon. 

More Dates, and Food

Godwin has always had a diverse palate, willing to explore a wider variety of meals on the menu. Derin, however, was not always adventurous with cuisines outside of her immediate convenience. “My friends used to call me the fried rice girl because that was what I always ordered.” Nowadays, she’s more open to trying new meals, and Godwin attempted to take credit for influencing her. She vehemently disagreed.

Like every restaurant-hopping couple, they have their favourite spots. Corniche Bistro was the third restaurant they went to after they became official, and beyond the sentimental value this restaurant holds for them, they love the tranquillity of its ambience, cosy in a way that makes it feel like their own personal space. They also love that even with the inflation that has ballooned the general cost of food in other restaurants, Corniche Bistro has maintained a reasonable price point. 

They also loved Moonshine Cafe, which has since been closed down. 

There is no contest on who the better cook is, as Godwin is more or less the only cook in the relationship. “I’ve only ever cooked for him once, when I made jollof rice for him last year, ” Derin informed me. I asked Godwin to rate the Jollof rice, and he gave her a respectable 7.5 rating out of 10.

Godwin hadn’t always had this level of affinity with his kitchen. He had developed a proclivity for eating out until he met Derin, and somewhere in the misty allure of their budding romance, he decided to start cooking more as it was more cost-effective.

It’s not clear how much influence Derin had on this decision. 

Godwin makes meals for Derin, ranging from egg-fried rice to instant noodles. But her favourite meal from Godwin’s menu is his Irish potato and scrambled eggs special.

“I don’t remember the specific name of this dish, but he makes it specially, and I love it so much”, she gushes. 

For a couple who has had food at the epicentre of their relationship, it’s no surprise that their Valentine’s Day agenda will be gastronomically inclined. They intend to kick off the festivities by going on an evening date on the 13th, followed by a cosy day at home on the 14th.

Godwin has curated six menu options for Derin to choose from, and she’ll select two dishes for him to prepare for their shared enjoyment, as if the bar wasn’t already high enough for other men. 

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Just before jumping off the 45-minute call with them, I ask if their shared love for food has improved the quality of their affection for each other. 

“Not really”, Godwin says, “it just made our relationship more interesting. But with or without food, we would have loved each other the same way.”